Delivery services (also known as courier services, mail services, and shipping services), such as those offered by the U.S. Postal Service and commercial carriers, provide delivery of letters, packages, and parcels (hereinafter referred to as “packages”) to and from residences and businesses across the country. Other delivery services may be provided by merchants, retailers, manufacturers, or other organizations that desire to deliver products to users. Typically, such services operate in a hub and spoke architecture.
A typical nationwide or international delivery service maintains a large fleet of vehicles. Such vehicles include airplanes and semi-trailer trucks to move packages between hubs and spokes, and smaller vehicles for the “last mile” from spoke endpoints to delivery destinations (for example, a home or business). In-between, the two largest commercial delivery services in the United States operate over 100,000 last mile vehicles, each of which requires a human operator. In certain situations, some interaction with a person at pickup or delivery is desired, for example, for proof of delivery, for payment on delivery (also known as “cash on delivery” or “COD”), or payment of delivery costs on pickup. The growth of business-to-consumer e-commerce, for example, online shopping, is expected to continue to increase the demand for delivery services and hence the need for capacity and efficiency in the last mile.
Unmanned, aerial delivery devices may be problematic for delivery to users. For example, an aerial delivery device that is powered by a rotor or an impeller may be dangerous to pets, overhead power lines, ceiling fans, or other features or residents at a delivery location. Furthermore, the aerial delivery device may not recognize a safe place to deliver a package. For example, leaving the package on the front porch of a busy street address may make it more likely that the package is stolen. Detailed delivery instructions to an unmanned aerial delivery device may be difficult for the limited vision system of the aerial delivery device to interpret. Thus, conventional aerial delivery device methods do not allow for safe, secure delivery of packages to delivery locations.